Georgians from Tbilisi came with their families, friends, colleagues, neighbors and even their dogs. In the early evening of Monday, October 28, lively Georgian sociability was on display on Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi's main thoroughfare. Snacks were eaten, kisses exchanged and the latest news shared, Georgian and European flags in hand or slung over shoulders. Tens of thousands responded to President Salome Zourabichvili's call to protest the results of the October 26 parliamentary elections, which she claims were rigged by Moscow. The police, grouped together in the adjacent streets, kept a low profile.

The crowd eagerly awaited a speech by the president, elected in 2018 on the ticket of the Georgian Dream, the party in power since 2012, and who has recently become the face of the opposition. When she finally climbed to the podium in front of Parliament, the audience broke into rapturous applause. "You didn't lose the election! Your vote was stolen, and they also tried to steal your future, but nobody has the right to do that," Zourabichvili said. "In the last two days, I've given 17 interviews and spoken to six presidents. Nobody recognizes these elections! Today, thanks to this rally, we are going to take back our rights," she continued, promising to defend "to the end" Georgia's membership in the European Union (EU), frozen by Brussels in response to repressive laws passed in the spring by Georgian Dream, the governing party.

These were the words the crowd had been waiting for. Disappointed by the final results of the parliamentary elections announced the day before, according to which Georgian Dream obtained 54% of the vote against 38% for the pro-European opposition, the demonstrators galvanized themselves by singing the national anthem, hand on heart. The people of Tbilisi are rallying behind the opposition. In the capital, the Dream won 44% of the vote alone. Its biggest success was recorded in the Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, in the south of the country, where 90% of registered voters cast their ballots in its favor. While the opposition presented the vote as a referendum on the future – Georgia will be either a democracy in Europe or an authoritarian country under Russian influence – Georgian Dream framed it as a choice between peace and war.

'I know they cheated'

Clutching each other, two students, Liza, 23, and Anna, 22, can't believe that the "falsified" results should be recognized as definitive. "Europe and the United States have to help us get the truth out. There has been so much scheming! I've seen it for myself in the constituency where I vote," explained Liza, a bright-eyed brunette. Has she personally witnessed any fraud? "No, but I know they [Georgian Dream] cheated, it's not possible otherwise. Why? In my district, here in town, they won when they usually lose," she said, energetically. Her friend Anna listed the alleged tampering denounced by the opposition. "There was massive vote-buying, multiple voting, pre-filled ballots, pressure, intimidation," she stated with a sigh. She herself saw nothing at the polling station in the capital's residential neighborhood of Vake, but she knows that it happened, "especially in the countryside."

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